Disability Quotes: List of Quotations Regarding Disabilities

"I congratulate President Obama for taking some time today to remember the 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. There is no place in our society for prejudice of any kind, yet it was not that long ago when Americans with disabilities were often not given equal rights and opportunities. Whether the cause was ignorance or indifference, it was not acceptable. We can all take pride in how much the ADA has accomplished, which is evident every time you attend a sporting event, ride the subway, or go to work. Yet, there is always more to be done, which is why it's good not only to celebrate our successes, but to look forward at what still must be done. As long as we never forget that every life is a miracle and each person has something to contribute, we will finish the job." - Statement from Former President George H.W. Bush on the Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act - July 24 2009.

"It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done badly. People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining." - Stephen Hawking

"The first lesson to learn is to resign oneself to the little difficulties in life, not to hit out at everything one comes up against. If one were able to manage this one would not need to cultivate great power; even one's presence would be healing." - Hazrat Inayat Khan

"I dreamed of heaven the other night, and the pearly gates swung wide. An angel with halo bright, ushered me inside. And there to my astonishment, stood folks I'd judged & labeled as quite "unfit," of "little worth," and "spiritually disabled." Indignant words rose to my lips, but NEVER were set free, for EVERY face showed stunned surprise, not ONE expected Me!" - Unknown

"If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation." - Helen Keller

"I have not been handicapped by my condition. I am physically challenged and differently able." - Janet Barnes - recognized as the longest living quadriplegic incomplete (Guinness World Records)

"If you get into what's missing, you don't appreciate what you have," and, "Adversity is a very funny thing." - Donald J. Trump - 45th President of the United States.

"I have learned that the biggest disability any of may ever face is our own attitudes. When my health took a turn for the worse, I found myself facing yet another disability, and this one has taken me from a strong man, able to do a hard days work, in six months, to a man hobbled by pain, and unable to walk unassisted. I thought I was open minded about people with disabilities before, but now, having found myself facing challenges in every area of my daily life, I am gaining a whole new respect for those who went before me, paving the way with their strength and determination. The learning curve of living with a handicap is a tough one, but I still thank God daily for giving me the opportunity to see things from a different perspective." - Jeffery F Walton

"Being disabled does not mean Un-abled, just Different Abled." - Mr. Noel Helm

"A child is only as disabled as their environment and the beliefs of the people around them." - Bala Pillai DPT, PCS

"When you have a disability, knowing that you are not defined by it is the sweetest feeling." - "In My Dreams I Dance ", Autobiography by Anne Wafula Strike (p. 79)

"Courage and strength is not the absence of fear - it's refusing to assume the role of a victim" - Anne Wafula Strike

"Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway" - Mary Kay Ash

"Enable the Disabled; Translate Disability into Ability; Capability, a winning Opportunity-Indeed a Reality" - Dr Veena Kumari

"When I dare to be powerful- to use my strength in the service of my vision then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." - Audre Lorde

"I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist." - Max Lerner

"Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses." - Alphonse Karr

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin

"New information and communications technologies can improve the quality of life for people with disabilities, but only if such technologies are designed from the beginning so that everyone can use them. Given the explosive growth in the use of the World Wide Web for publishing, electronic commerce, lifelong learning and the delivery of government services, it is vital that the Web be accessible to everyone." - Bill Clinton

"The goals of our public welfare program must be positive and constructive. [The welfare program] must stress the integrity and preservation of the family unit. It must contribute to the attack on dependency, juvenile delinquency, family breakdown, illegitimacy, ill health, and disability. It must reduce the incidence of these problems, prevent their occurrence and recurrence, and strengthen and protect the vulnerable in a highly competitive world." - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"Each handicap is like a hurdle in a steeplechase, and when you ride up to it, if you throw your heart over, the horse will go along, too." - Lawrence Bixby

"Let's stop "tolerating" or "accepting" difference, as if we're so much better for not being different in the first place. Instead, let's celebrate difference, because in this world it takes a lot of guts to be different." - Kate Bornstein

"We all have a disability of some kind; all are lacking in one way or another. Saul has an injury to his leg. What if his personality was deformed? How much worse if his soul was lame? Preachers or teachers look for the good in all of us. (Bless them for doing so.) I don't see a cripple. I haven't met anyone yet who isn't handicapped in some way. So what's the big deal? Don't hide your deformity. Wear it like a Purple Heart." - Georgiann Baldino

"Chastity is not chastity in an old man, but a disability to be unchaste." - John Donne

"I discovered early that the hardest thing to overcome is not a physical disability but the mental condition which it induces. The world, I found, has a way of taking a man pretty much at his own rating. If he permits his loss to make him embarrassed and apologetic, he will draw embarrassment from others. But if he gains his own respect, the respect of those around him comes easily." - Alexander de Seversky

"But pain... seems to me an insufficient reason not to embrace life. Being dead is quite painless. Pain, like time, is going to come on regardless. Question is, what glorious moments can you win from life in addition to the pain" - Lois McMaster Bujold

"The healthy and strong individual is the one who asks for help when he needs it. Whether he's got an abscess on his knee or in his soul." - Rona Barrett

"Disability is not a brave struggle or 'courage in the face of adversity.' Disability is an art. It's an ingenious way to live." - Neil Marcus

"Not only do physically disabled people have experiences which are not available to the able-bodied, they are in a better position to transcend cultural mythologies about the body, because they cannot do things the able-bodied feel they must do in order to be happy, 'normal,' and sane....If disabled people were truly heard, an explosion of knowledge of the human body and psyche would take place." - Susan Wendell

"For me, the wheelchair symbolizes disability in a way a cane does not." - Annette Funicello

"A true friend knows your weaknesses but shows you your strengths; feels your fears but fortifies your faith; sees your anxieties but frees your spirit; recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities." - William Arthur Ward

"It will kill four times as many Americans as AIDS will over the next decade. I feel that what ever kind of disability God has given me, as an entertainer and as a public figure, it is so I can be a representative for others." - Naomi Judd

"Americans believe that people should work hard and get ahead on their own, but when disaster strikes and they need help with retirement or disability, Americans as a whole should come to their aid." - Jacob Hacker

"One always overcompensates for disabilities. I'm thinking of having my entire body surgically removed." - Douglas Adams

"For me, disability is a way of getting some extremity, some kind of very difficult situation, that throws an interesting light on people." - Mark Haddon

"Old or young, healthy as a horse or a person with a disability that hasn't kept you down, man or woman, Native American, native born, immigrant, straight or gay - whatever; the test ought to be I believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. I believe in religious liberty. I believe in freedom of speech. I believe in working hard and playing by the rules. I'm showing up for work tomorrow. I'm building that bridge to the 21st century. That ought to be the test." - Bill Clinton

"Herein lies the real value of education. Advanced education may or may not make men and women more efficient; but it enriches personality, increases the wealth of the mind, and hence brings happiness. It is the finest insurance against old age, against the growth of physical disability, against the lack and loss of animal delights. How essential it is, then, in youth to acquire some intellectual or artistic tastes, in order to furnish the mind, to be able to live inside a mind with attractive and interesting pictures on the walls." - William Lyon Phelps

"When committees gather, each member is necessarily an actor, uncontrollably acting out the part of himself, reading the lines that identify him, asserting his identity. We are designed, coded, it seems, to place the highest priority on being individuals, and we must do this first, at whatever cost, even if it means disability for the group." - Lewis Thomas

"Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone." - Martina Navratilova

"Pertaining to the philosophy of Socrates. Platonic Love is a fool's name for the affection between a disability and a frost." - Ambrose Bierce

"Congress acknowledged that society's accumulated myths and fears about disability and disease are as handicapping as are the physical limitations that flow from actual impairment." - William J. Brennan, Jr.

"The only disability in life is a bad attitude." - Scott Hamilton

"I have terrible handwriting. I now say it's a learning disability... but a nun who was a very troubled woman hit me over the fingers with a ruler because my writing was so bad." - Andrew Greeley

"It is a lonely existence to be a child with a disability which no-one can see or understand, you exasperate your teachers, you disappoint your parents, and worst of all you know that you are not just stupid." - Susan Hampshire

"It was ability that mattered, not disability, which is a word I'm not crazy about using." - Marlee Matlin

"Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see." - Helen Keller

"No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit." - Helen Keller

"I take advantage of every thing I can - age, hair, disability - because my cause is just." - Marjory S. Douglas

"I have often been asked, Do not people bore you? I do not understand quite what that means. I suppose the calls of the stupid and curious, especially of newspaper reporters, are always inopportune. I also dislike people who try to talk down to my understanding. They are like people who when walking with you try to shorten their steps to suit yours; the hypocrisy in both cases is equally exasperating." - Helen Keller

"I was slightly brain damaged at birth, and I want people like me to see that they shouldn't let a disability get in the way. I want to raise awareness - I want to turn my disability into ability." - Susan Boyle

"The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex, if not more important, than those of blindness. Deafness is a much worse misfortune. For it means the loss of the most vital stimulus--the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thoughts astir and keeps us in the intellectual company of man." - Helen Keller

"I seem to be thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists. However, this is not entirely a matter of joy as if someone returned from physical disability to good physical health." - John Nash

"Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings." - Helen Keller

"Having no expectations shows pity, which shows sadness, sorrow & regret. A child with a disability needs support. Stand behind him, champion and back him! Believe in him and have expectations! They inspire hope, excitement, eagerness and success! Which would you want others to give you" - Joan Scanlon-Dise

The Following Quotes are by Robert M. Hensel

Robert Michael Hensel was born with Spina bifida. He is also a Guinness World Records holder for the longest non-stop wheelie in a wheelchair, covering a total distance of 6.178 miles!

• Limitations only go so far - Robert M. Hensel
• Know me for my abilities, not my disability - Robert M. Hensel
• I don't have a dis-ability, I have a different-ability - Robert M. Hensel
• Go ahead and label me, cause labels are made for gifts - Robert M. Hensel
• My disability has opened my eye's to see my true abilities - Robert M. Hensel
• When everyone else says you can't, determination says,"YES YOU CAN." - Robert M. Hensel
• There is no greater disability in society, than the inability to see a person as more - Robert M. Hensel
• I have a Disability yes thats true, but all that really means is I may have to take a slightly different path than you - Robert M. Hensel
• As a disabled man, let my life be a reflection of the endless amount of ability that exists in each and everyone of us - Robert M. Hensel
• We, the one's who are challenged, need to be heard. To be seen not as a disability, but as a person who has and will continue to bloom. To be seen not only as a handicap, but as a well intact human being - Robert M. Hensel
• It takes an open minded individual to look beyond a disability, and see, that ability has so much more to offer, than the limitations society tries to place upon them - Robert M. Hensel
• Placing one foot in front of the other, I've climbed to higher lengths. Reaching beyond my own limitations, to show my inner strength. No obstacle to hard, for this warrior to overcome. I'm just a man on a mission, to prove my disability hasn't won - Robert M. Hensel
• No disability or dictionary out there, is capable of clearly defining who we are as a person. It's only when we step out of that labeled box, that our abilities begin to be fully recognized, giving us a better definition of who we truly are as individuals - Robert M. Hensel